How To Avoid Telephone Scams?

With the increase of hacking scams, it’s easy to forget the potential of telephone scams and the fact they do still occur. While majority of them are carried out by text messages, cold calls are still a thing and not a bygone expectation of the landline age. Here we’re going to divulge 5 tips on how to best protect yourself against telephone scams.

5 Tips On How To Avoid Telephone Scams

Incoming Calls

Some cold calls will come through on a withheld or private number and some will come from a number – usually a call centre or diverted international number – that you don’t instantly recognise. The first rule of thumb is not to answer calls that your mobile flags as dangerous or spam and to avoid, where you can, answering calls from private numbers.

Sometimes, though, you’re expecting a call from a private number and get bombared with a cold call instead. When this happens, if someone asks for your name, don’t answer straight away. Ask who is calling and why straight away. This gives you control over whether you want to continue the call or not without confirming to the caller the knowledge of your identity (and the ability to call you back if you do confirm your identity). If the call makes you uncomfortable, hang up.

Legitimacy

If in the first stages of the call you don’t recognize the caller or the company, ask for them to wait for a moment and get on the internet (if you can) and don’t forget to put them on hold or mute. Research the name of the company in two separate search engines, who they are and more importantly user reviews to get a sense of their business style and reputation.

If you can’t find anything about the caller or the company on the internet and/or they have negative reviews, take that as the red flag it is and end the call. Don’t even wait to say goodbye; just hang up. You don’t owe them anything. If they repeat call, add them to a blocklist. If your phone doesn’t have this feature, download a call blocker from the app store.

Cash Handling

If the caller or company asks you to pay any amount of cash over the phone: _don’t, _unless you implicity trust the caller (like your bank or internet service provider). This includes not handing over your credit or debit card information as once you do, the caller has unrestricted access to charge your card whatever amount they like and you have only their word about the amount they will charge. Some callers will use phrases like “it’s genuine”, that they “give you their word” to sound much more convincing. If you’re not sure about them, on top of a legitimacy check, ask them for a traceable bank account and to call back later when you have verified it. Go with your gut feeling. When in doubt (even if you’re not entirely sure either way), just don’t.And don’t give number on https://khosim.com/sim-vietnamobile IMEI SIM card to anyone

Charisma

Most cold callers are sales based marketers and their income is based off commission. To that end, they wouldn’t be able to sell if they didn’t have the gift of charisma. They know how to spin something to make it (and them) sound authentic, attractive and auspicious. However, they use tone of voice to do this and it can be exhaustng. Listen to it carefully and listen for turns of phrase like those mentioned above. If at any time you feel like something isn’t quite right, it isn’t. That’s the bottom line. End the call at this point because the marketer or caller will sense your hesitation and try to plug that hole. The purpose of cold calling is to separate you from your cash, as is scam calling. Don’t fall for fanciful turn or phrases or a friendly person on the other end.And you should use https://khosim.com/sim-so-dep SIM card to hide fungible information

Call Recorder

While they may not be available in every country, one of the best ways to protect yourself from cold or scam callers is to record the call. Call recorders can be dowloaded from the app store but make sure to pay attention to the app information as some call recorders may not work or only record your end of the call due to the laws in your country. If you do proceed to make a cash transaction over the phone and it turns out to be illegitimate or more than the stated amount, you can present the recording to your bank and a court to get your cash back and the called prosecuted for fraud.

These 5 tips on how to avoid telephone scams should keep you safe but remember: it mostly comes down to common sense.